[getbak]

If you look at the scoring chart, you'll see that there was a low point in the late 1920s, followed by a big one-year spike.

That low season was 1928-29, and it was the final season before the NHL legalized the forward pass into the offensive zone. That year, the highest scoring team in the NHL was the Bruins, who scored 89 goals in 44 games (just over 2 goals per game). The lowest scoring team was the Blackhawks, with 33 goals in 44 games (0.75 GPG).

In 1929-30, the NHL legalized the forward pass, and scoring exploded. In fact, scoring increased so much that the league introduced a version of the offside rule mid-season to actually bring scoring down. In 1929-30, the Bruins were again the highest-scoring team, putting up more than 4 goals per game. The lowest scoring team was the Pittsburgh Pirates (obviously, their problem was that they were a baseball team trying to play hockey), and they actually scored 13 more goals than Boston had the previous year.

In the 1930-31 season, with a full year of the offside rule in place, scoring settled down into an area that was lower than the previous year's high-point, but still significantly higher than the low point of two years prior. That season, there were no teams above 3.5 goals per game, and no teams below 1.5.



Since the offside rule was originally brought in to reduce scoring, if they want to increase scoring, they should look at eliminating or altering the offside rule. Personally, I'd just scrap it entirely. Let players go anywhere they want on the ice at any time.

If a team wants to cherry-pick, they can, at the risk of being outnumbered in the defensive zone. If the other team is cherry-picking in your zone, you have to decide whether to defend against the deep man when you have the puck, or take advantage of the odd-man situation down the ice. Eliminating offsides, would open up the ice, which would create more room and likely increase scoring chances.

One of the things that allowed the trap to flourish was the fact that teams can line up across their blueline and prevent the other team from gaining the zone with any momentum. Without offsides, the attacking players could skate past the defenders on the line and be in the zone ready for a pass from the puck carrier rather than being forced into a dump and chase scenario.

Eliminating offsides would also get rid of the importance of dumping the puck out of the zone because the other team wouldn't have to clear the zone before continuing their attack. In fact, along with eliminating offsides, I'd also eliminate icing. Any team with a goalie who can handle the puck well would be able to pick apart teams that ice the puck too much.

Getting rid of both offsides and icings would also reduce the number of stoppages. Basically, play would only stop on goals and penalties or when the puck goes out of play or the goalie freezes it. The game would be almost constant action.


Look at the NLL. They don't have offsides or the equivalent of an icing rule, and their scores are extremely high, despite the fact that their nets are smaller and their goalies wear massive pads. Obviously, there are other factors that impact scoring in lacrosse (notably that a player can release a shot from anywhere in his full range of motion, so it's harder for a goalie to know where the shot is coming from), but the fast breakout definitely opens up the game.